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623 results found

Instrument assessment preferable over standard beside swallow to determine prevalence of aspiration

Aspiration does not trigger the protective cough response in some patients. The patient’s response may vary according to fluid viscosities and volume. The authors of this prospective study investigated the prevalence of aspiration and response to aspiration of different viscosities...

Questionnaire to determine quality of life in Parkinson’s disease patients with swallowing problems

The quality of life (QoL) in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) is often influenced by changes in their swallowing abilities. The authors of this paper have developed a valid, statistically appropriate questionnaire which is also clinically effective and can be...

Speech perception in the ageing population

Speech perception can present a challenge as we grow older. One of the factors responsible is, of course, hearing loss. Now research indicates that other non-auditory factors like cognitive decline may also contribute to difficulties in understanding speech. The authors...

Manual Therapy for Voice and Swallowing

This 300-page practical book on Manual Therapy for Voice and Swallowing is written by a single author, Walt Fritz, who is a US-based manual therapist. The first 150 pages include an overly detailed introduction, including his personal view and journey...

Motor learning: better knowing how, not how well

Motor learning is described as the ability to perform a motor skill due to practice and/or experience. Research on interventions to enhance limb motor skills can be influenced through the amount, distribution, variability and schedule of practice as well as...

A review of DISE classification systems

This article looks at the wide variety of classification systems currently available for interpreting drug induced sleep endoscopy (DISE).The fact that there are so many classification systems, suggests that there is: A) a lot of disagreement about how DISE should...

Lack of early vocabulary growth in bilateral cochlear implant children

Studies indicate that children with unilateral implantation may have delayed vocabulary development for long periods of time even after implantation. This Finnish study attempted to find out whether bilateral cochlear implantation was associated with earlier vocabulary development. The authors analysed...

Tongue twisters to evaluate speech disorders

This interesting study compared errors in tongue twisters produced by adult patients with dysarthria with those produced by age-matched healthy controls. Audio recordings of all patients while they were vocalising tongue twisters were studied. The authors marked one word prominently...

Importance of face-to-face communication in clinical practice

Breakdowns in communication with patients who have difficulty in understanding, speaking or hearing may occur during a consultation. The authors of this paper studied the hearing-related breakdowns in communication especially amongst older adults with hearing impairment (HI) using conversational analysis...

Reduce medical errors by improving communication: supporting vulnerable people

This article starts by emphasising that communication failures are a fairly common cause of medical errors. They highlight that people with dysarthria can experience significant communication difficulties and are at particular risk of this type of breakdown in care. People...

A song for my future self

People with aphasia experience a loss of friendships and social networks and, with this, a loss of identity. Interventions targeting participation, social and emotional wellbeing for people with aphasia have received more attention in the research literature. Storytelling is a...

A match made in heaven: being a good supervisor

Supervision is a core component of clinical training for all healthcare professionals. Most colleges advocate supervisors be trained in the skill of supervision, but this is not standard practice. Often supervisors rely on the skills they learn from their own...